Talk:Tea

Tea in Russia
Theere is an incorrect thing is written in a tea in russia paragraph. The tea is not made or brewed in samovar, but made with it. The samovar is a water container while the tea itself brewed in a certain teapot. 109.195.90.24 (talk) 16:39, 15 January 2024 (UTC)

Compressed teas
I think that the mention of puerh at "Compressed tea (such as pu-erh)" should be removed. This is due to the fact that firstly, puerh is not by definition compressed. Although it is *usually* sold in compressed form, the only difference this makes is how the tea will age (ex. in the case of Xiaguan iron-compression, a significant difference between inner & outer material of the beeng can be observed due to the tightness of the compression limiting the inside's exposure to humidity), and does not have any significant impact on the character of un-aged teas. It is also very possible to find puerh sold uncompressed. Secondly, listing puerh as a specific example of compressed tea implies that there exists types of tea that are compressed, and types that are not compressed. This is untrue, because any type of tea can be compressed, and it's become a bit of a trend (at least for Western vendors) to compress teas that are traditionally loose, most notably white tea.

Since I am a new editor, I am nervous to make what might be a controversial deletion without any evaluation from others. I think that the best way to move forward would be to add information under this heading about how puerh as well as other heicha are traditionally compressed for sale/transport, but I'm not yet comfortable enough in my writing skills to make this change. Disaster-prevent (talk) 23:15, 18 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Tried to do this. Johnbod (talk) 00:53, 19 April 2024 (UTC)
 * I've just noticed that I can't edit this page myself, I think it's because I have not made at least 10 edits with this account - I appreciate the edit, but I think it'll have to be altered again, since the "beeng" shape (a disc-like shape) is just as if not more prominent than the brick shape, so calling compressed tea "tea bricks" is inaccurate. The portion stating that compressing tea helps prevent spoilage is uncited, and unless a good source is found it should probably be removed - there can be found aged puerh that is loose, and loose oolong can also be aged.
 * Maybe it is possible to also include the info in the previous version on puerh being a notable example of a tea that is frequently compressed? I think something like "Tea, most notably pu-erh, may be compressed to assist in storage, transport, and aging etc." Disaster-prevent (talk) 01:46, 19 April 2024 (UTC)
 * I think you have a point but I don't think it's necessary to remove it completely. Traditionally Puer tea is often always compressed, because the compression process helps the aging process and flavour development over time. It has their unique flavour because of such a process. So it is not misleading to say traditionally made Puer Tea is compressed. But yes, it's possible to buy it in loose leaves. So I think it would be better to add in context that explains that the traditional process often involves compressing into cakes, bricks, or tuochas (bird's nests). But it's also possible nowadays to buy the loose leaf version too. 49.180.117.225 (talk) 15:41, 28 April 2024 (UTC)

Major overlaps with 'Main' articles
This article, while quite well-written and in most places well-cited, has two major defects. The 'Origin and history' chapter has 'main' links to History of tea and History of tea in China (not quite sure one can have 2 main links, surely the second one is a subset of the first, too); while the 'Tea culture' chapter has a 'main' link called Tea culture.

In both cases, the correct result per policy is for the chapter to summarize the article at the other end of the 'main' link briefly, in a paragraph or two, citing the major sources of the 'main' article. What is not supposed to happen is for the chapter to extend for hundreds of words (almost 2000 words for the History, over 800 for Tea culture), overlapping widely with the 'main' article.

We should accordingly cut down both sections to comply with policy, allowing the focus of the article to be on Tea itself, with modest main-linked sections on History and Culture. Chiswick Chap (talk) 13:36, 3 May 2024 (UTC)